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Foursquare announces Swarm, its new app for checking in

Foursquare has announced that they're going to be spinning off a new app this summer called Swarm. While Foursquare has been used for sharing where you are for years, Swarm aims to facilitate meet-ups with friends more easily by letting you broadcast where you're going next and what your friends' plans are. Meanwhile, the original Foursquare app will be changing a little bit to be more focused on venue discovery and reviews.

The power of Foursquare as a recommendation engine is significant. Our own Ally Kazmucha says it's the only travel app she needs. As for Swarm, location (or even proximity) sensing isn't something we haven't seen before, but nobody's been able to do it in a big, popular, and ubiquitous way. Foursquare's existing popularity may be enough to propel Swarm to that status, but we're going to have to wait a bit to find out.

Swarm will be rolling out in a few weeks to Android and iOS, with Windows Phone not too much farther behind. How do you feel about sharing your location with a broad circle of friends? Have any apps been able to do it well enough for you so far?